The Fitch/White Debacle: Abject Failure
By Josh Stein on Nov 20, 2008
I haven’t been angry lately, and perhaps that’s healthy. It may have kept my bloodpressure down, it may have even made me a more pleasant person for my friends to hang out with, but it definitely didn’t make my writing very interesting. Thanks, Dana and Jon, for screwing my friends and giving me something to be pissed about.
A lot of people are going to come out in defense of Jon Fitch, and that’s fine. Those people have a right to defend the fighter, and he needs the defense more than Dana White, who has his own propaganda machine to flood the airways in his defense.
I’m not going to defend Jon Fitch, because I don’t feel like he deserves defending. He’s a grown man, and should be treated like it when he does something stupid.
While it remains to be seen how much time went into dealing with this situation, while we have seen no discussion of how Dana tried to negotiate this contract and what Fitch wanted (besides the fact that he wanted image rights), I am going to come right out and declare both men failures in negotiation.
There’s an old saying that there are two things you never want to see made; laws and sausages. MMA contracts have always held an unspoken place on that list.
Now, since we know nothing about the negotiations, and we probably never will, I’m not going to say that the negotiations were a failure. But the fourth grade finger pointing pisses me off.
Dana White is quick to call out “the idiots that run AKA” (and I know who he’s talking about just as well as he does), but he does it like he’s going to solve something with that. He called out Fedor’s management the same way, and Finklestein basically walked away from the table. Who can blame them? Do you really want to negotiate with a guy who’s calling you an idiot?
Jon Fitch’s sense of ego pissed me off just as much. Any man who says “This is seriously how they’re going to treat fighters? Especially me?” Borders on delusional. I like Jon Fitch, for the most part, but he should have known stepping into those conversations that he was disposable, that the UFC would be just fine without him, but that he was in trouble withou the UFC. If he’s surprised it was easy to let him go, then he needs a history lesson (and a brain).
The UFC has a long history of being hardnosed when negotiating contracts. It has a long history of stripping titles, of sending fighters away and holding grudges that screw the MMA fan who just wants to see a good fight. Apart from the inherently retarded nature of this policy, I have to say that the way Dana White carries himself pisses me off more than anything else.
I have talked a lot about respect among fighters, and usually Dana understands that dynamic. Usually he knows that you don’t jump a cage or spit on a blackbelt, but he should also know that, even if a guy isn’t fighting for you, you give credit where credit is due.
Until we know more, I’m not going to take sides, but I will say that both of these guys have been wearing big-boy pants for a while now, and they need to stop behaving like toddlers with a toy fire-engine appealing to the better judgment of the masses with sympathy and name calling.
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[...] MMA OpinionThe Fitch/White Debacle: Abject Failure [...]
I’ll give Fitch a pass. He’s reacting to
He probably missed the memo that the UFC’s policies are very bullish and White doesn’t conduct himself like an executive that’s accountable to a Board of Directors.
Honestly I’m shocked that some fans are angry with Fitch. I really do understand Dana’s perspective of building the sport, the UFC brand and superstars, just like Vince McMahon. In perpetuity really stifles any future possible opportunities, especially any chances of Fitch children possibly making money off his name or work. Randy recently had to deal with the rights to his name.
Here’s an update statement from Dana. A little softer.
http://mmamania.com/2008/11/20/dana-white-elaborates-on-jon-fitch-release-and-stance-on-aka/
I won’t be surprised to see more fighters looking to stay in the smaller decent regional promotions knowing that as long as they are putting on a good performance, they have a steady paycheck. The UFC is trying too hard to be the Wal-Mart of MMA and it’s really starting to feel like they want to come off like the big tough jerk in the business. Who knew that boxercise training could give someone such an ego?
josh, i did read your last post & all the million others from the various web sites, which is why my comment had way more info in it than just what was posted. in any event, i’m sure you now have all the other info that went out today re: fitch’s comments, dana’s comments, aka, etc. there’s a ton out there and that’s why the responses are comprehensive, not just on what’s on here.
anyway, this has been a whirlwind to say the least & somehow reading this story reminds me of mel gibson in braveheart screaming, “FREEDOM!!” It may sound cliche, but i still believe in having rights whether or not i choose to exercise them or not, or whether or not they may ever materialize. if someone wants to take away those rights, and then threatens my livelihood if i don’t give them away according to the “FAVORS” that i need to comply with, then that seems a bit unethical to me. and before everyone says, “they’re a private co./ don’t work for them, etc. etc….i agree w/ that, but only to a point. saying something like that is only valid if you have another company or organization to go to. otherwise, if you only have pretty much ONE choice, then that option sort of becomes moot and meaningless.
can i choose then to not be a fighter – sure. but how logical or practical is that? especially in terms of the age, training, money and lifelong dedication spent towards being a pro fighter. which is why i say that………..
i cannot wait for the day that another promotion is able to truly challenge the ufc so that when they pull their strongarm tactics on the fighters, they can actually say “f*ck u dana” and go elsewhere and really have a place to earn a living. for all the bad crap spoken about the other organizations, it seems they at least didn’t squeeze the lifeblood out of their fighters just so they could earn every red cent from them. to go back to something very relevant that luke thomas of bloody elbow posted in one of the many fitchgate stories: he asked several ?’s re: why the contract needed to be exclusive, why is it absolutely nonnegotiable, why cut fitch completely instead of just out of the game & is this more personal w/ zinkin than w/ fitch himself? the truth is, there really are no answers to these questions that can justify the lifetime issue and the nonpayment to the fighter, including upon his death. & it does not matter to me that currently no org. pays their fighters for dvd’s or the like; they should & hopefully will in the future if the fighters get a union or something similar in terms of banding together.
again, it goes back to freedom and rights. the ufc is categorically trying to take them away, and b/c they are the only real game in town, they can pretty much force the fighter’s hand if they want to eat & continue to live. you can argue all u want that they (the ufc) have the right to do this & it’s about $$, and while that may be true, it does not necessarily make it right or fair or ethical.
i hope ea sports makes a video game and asks fitch to be in it and then let the ufc sue and have their contract declared illegal. that would be the sweetest revenge. i know fitch had to capitulate b/c of monetary reasons b/c there just aren’t too many places to go at this juncture. fitch may never have another video offer, but the fact that he could & now cannot exercise that right is the main crux of the problem for me. the pt. is giving up a right that you have as a person and as an employee of a company and giving up that right due to pressure of not being able to thrive b/c there isn’t enough competition. at some pt. what may seem like a small silly video game can lead to larger issues and rights that slowly are devalued by strongarm tactics.
so much for freedom of autonomy. as fitch said, swick has a “special” deal for a video game so he’s not affected the same way as fitch is; and who knows how many other fighters are exempt from the ufc’s special brand of “offers they can’t refuse.”
maybe it’s time for a ufc – vegas tea party……w/ the aka boys leading the way. hey, ken-flo is from boston, maybe he can give em some pointers.
When he was unemployed, the reason he didn’t sign the contract was because lifetime ownership of his videogame likeness was too long and his family wouldn’t get royalties if he died. Now that he’s been rehired, the reason he didn’t sign the contract the first time was because Dana was mean to him. Give me a break.
The contracts themselves are unfair, but if you ask fighters to sign them with a pretty please with a cherry on top thrown in, everything’s dandy. Ha.
Dana can get fired like that. He’s not a majority owner in any way. If he had refused to sign fighters to this contract, he’d be out of a job. To single Dana out because of his big mouth is pretty unfair. The company itself is the one demanding the contracts get signed. People used this drama as an excuse to attack Dana White instead of the company demanding fighters sign their rights away. And they’re still attacking him, even though Dana was taken out of the picture completely and Fitch still had to agree to the contract demands.
mattio, i agree w/ you re: fitch’s change of reasoning, being that the lifetime contract issue should have been his sticking issue all along. i disagree w/ you re: the comments about dana. at least for me, when i mention dana in my post, i am targeting the ufc as a whole, meaning, zuffa llc. i just choose to write dana as their representative but when i speak about it, i at least, mean the ufc in general, not dana specifically. although i also take issue w/ him as far his saying, “f*ck you” to the fighters and their camp. that is on him, not ufc.
I think Fitch finally stood up for himself, UFC contracts are by far the worst in any professional sport. I mean they wanted Fitch to sign a lifetime contract for the use of his likeness in video games without any compensation. Brock Lesnar earned a respectable amount for his likeness in all the WWE video games he was in, and rightfully so. This incident has exposed Dana as being the most iron-fisted, greedy, and manipulative negotiator in sports history. He may bag on boxing promoters, but at least those guys all drive Ferraris, and to this day very few UFC fighters could afford them.